


Ocean Blue Eyes Looking in Mine

by waterlilyvioletfog



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Jaime Lannister, Post - A Dance With Dragons, The Quiet Isle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-08 05:09:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21230330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterlilyvioletfog/pseuds/waterlilyvioletfog
Summary: After the events from AFFC and ADWD and some events of TWOW, Jaime, Brienne, Podrick, and Hyle make their way to the Quiet Isle to recuperate before they head their separate ways again. Jaime has an epiphany and he and Brienne come to something of an understanding.





	1. Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Look. Gorgeous! by Taylor Swift is a bop and the lyrics fit well with JB so. Fucking deal with it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make their escape.

It was Brienne's male companion- average height, average face, brown hair and eyes- who got them out of there. Jaime was still a stranger to the Riverlands even besides his load, the boy was quite simply too terrified to have any real idea of what to do or where to go, and Brienne- 

Jaime was bleeding from his right shoulder where a sword had cut him, but Brienne had fresh wounds on her stomach courtesy of some of the Brothers. She'd been all right at first, but after the first hour or so, she had started to droop. They'd finally stopped for the night in the abandoned, burnt up shell of a home. By the dawn of the second day, Brienne was sweaty and delirious. As if Jaime weren't worried enough already, the boy's anxiousness was more than enough to make Jaime truly fear for the wench's life. 

"I'm worried about ser- m'lady, Ser. To have another fever, just as she's recovering from the last one-" 

"The last one?" Jaime interjected. The boy nodded. 

"She finally about a sennight past. The wizard and the girl said it was because of her ribs and her cheek." 

Jaime had noticed the cheek. "How did she come by them?" 

The boy bit his lip. "Biter," he said. Jaime inhaled sharply. 

"I hadn't realized the name was so literal," Jaime said lightly. 

The man's brow was furrowed too, but he said little and less of Brienne's condition. 

"It makes no matter," he said determinedly, "We must needs press on to the Quiet Isle. We cannot heal her ourselves and that's the nearest place she can get the best healing. We're not going back to that bloody inn. Maidenpool is too far and they wouldn't treat her there. I've no knowledge of any maester at Harrenhal-" 

"There isn't any." 

"And I wouldn't trust the loyalties of any other lords and ladies to yourself, Kingslayer. We must needs make for the Isle." 

So they did. 

The Quiet Isle was two days' ride from where they had been camped, the journey tense and quiet, and when they finally reached it the Elder Brother raised his eyebrows at the sight of their ragtag band, but he bid them welcome and set to having Brienne treated with all swiftness. Jaime nearly cried in relief when he was told that the Brothers would set to healing her immediately. Though that may have been because another brother was stitching up the cut on his arm. 

After they had all been tended to, they sat down to eat- the Elder Brother, Jaime, the man, the boy, and some other brothers. 

"Tell me, Ser Hyle," the Elder Brother said to the man, "what brings you back to the Quiet Isle so soon after your last visit?" 

"Outlaws," the man- Ser Hyle- said, "outlaws with a thirst for the blood of kingsmen." 

"Ah. So the lady and yourself?" 

"The sword she bears has a lion for its pommel, the documents on her person were sealed by the king, and I'm known to have been a man of Randall Tarly. The didn't care for the boy, either. Podrick was squire for the Imp before he latched onto Lady Brienne." 

"Yes, I'd imagine they would rather object to that." 

Hyle glared at Jaime. "This is all your fault, Kingslayer." 

Jaime said nothing, but inside he seethed. 

He turned instead to the boy Ser Hyle had called Podrick. "You were my little brother's squire?" 

"Yes, Ser." 

"Odd. I wasn't aware of him being a knight." Podrick flushed. 

"No, Ser. My house- Payne- well, it's a debt, I suppose. I dressed Lord Tyrion and did his bidding and I saved him during the battle." 

"The Blackwater?" Podrick nodded. 

"Yes, but then Lord Tyrion was arrested and then he left and I was all alone, but I knew that Ser- Lady- Brienne was searching for my mistress, Lady Sansa, and I had thought that mayhaps if I found Lady Sansa I could find Lord Tyrion. But all we found was outlaws. Ser." 

Jaime smiled at Podrick tiredly. "Believe me, boy. Wherever the Spider sent my brother, it wasn't to his lady wife. I doubt even Varys knows where the girl is. If she even lives. Most like, someone killed her, or she changed her name and chopped off her hair, or she's somewhere in Braavos or Lys serving as a courtesan or concubine even now. Mayhaps the Dornish brought her to their deserts in the chaos of that night. Mayhaps she's dead in a ditch, or the Tyrells have her, or she's at the Wall where her bastard brother is. I sent Lady Brienne to find her, and I have never doubted that she can, but I don't believe the lady wants to be found, if she even can be. She's lost, most like, just like her sister. All the Starks dead, but for the Bastard on the Wall." 

After that, they finished their meal in silence. 


	2. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may get trippy. Ummmm...   
Trigger warning for some body horror (descriptions of Stoneheart's face)   
Trigger warning for hangings/nooses   
Stay safe kiddos.

The men were housed separately from the women on the Quiet Isle. Jaime supposed he could understand why. This was meant to be a holy place full of celibate men. There was little place for women and less place for sex. It annoyed him anyway. He wanted... he wanted to watch over her. To be by her side when she awoke. But he supposed that would not be permitted. 

The Elder Brother walked them to their lodgings. "You are Ser Jaime Lannister," he remarked to Jaime. 

"Yes." 

"She told me about you." 

"Only terrible tales, I pray." 

"No," he said thoughtfully, "I never would have thought it, but she only had good things to say about you, Ser." Jaime laughed nervously. 

"Well I suppose I ought to be glad she only told it to a monk and not to some high lord- apologies." 

"Yes, I believe that is what  _ you _ would think, Kingslayer." 

"Have you told anyone else?" 

"No. Tis not my place. But you might consider telling someone. Someday. Or mayhaps having Lady Brienne tell someone for you. It may do you good."

It took a long time for Jaime to fall into sleep that night. When he did, his sleep was filled with dreams. 

The dream was a deep, dark green. Jaime looked down at his hands. There were two, just as there always were in dreams. There was a sword at his feet, good castle-forged steel, but nothing elaborate. It gleamed red. Jaime picked it up in his right hand. His feet were bare, as was the rest of him, he realized. He was standing in the forest, naked as his nameday, with nothing to protect him but his sword. 

A guttural noise sounded behind him. Jaime turned to see the Hangwoman. She was yet more withered than she'd been when Jaime had seen her in the forest, which Jaime had not thought possible. She screeched and hissed at him, drawing closer and closer and Jaime could see every horrible, vivid detail of her face- the glow of her cloudy eyes, the ragged slashes in her bloated face. Nearer and nearer she drew until Jaime could look only at the blood still weeping from her throat, could only smell the scent of death and river water that hung about her. Her teeth were clacking, hoarse screams ripping themselves through the world. 

"What are you trying to say?" Jaime asked. 

Stoneheart stopped, a snarl etched upon her face. 

"She wants her family back," Brienne said. 

"I haven't got them," he protested. 

"If you don't give them to her, she'll take me." 

Jaime turned, finally, to Brienne. She stood behind him, also nude, but carrying Oathkeeper high aloft, which emitted a soft light. No, not quite nude- there was some scrap of fabric (red?) tied about her wrist. There was another tied around his, too, now that he looked. His was pink and blue. Her eyes were blue as oceans, and her face was healed in his dream. There was no scar of ropeburn about her flushed, freckled throat. 

"What?" 

Brienne stepped forward. "If you don't give the ones she loves back, she'll take the one you love, Jaime. You love me. I'm nearly the only thing you love these days. Or at least, the one you love the most." 

"What?" Jaime shook his head, backing away from Brienne. "I don't love you. I don't. That's madness, Brienne." 

"Is it?" Jaime startled. He'd been so focused on Brienne he'd gone back towards Stoneheart. But she wasn't Stoneheart anymore. She was Lady Stark, with her long thick tresses of Tully red hair. She was sitting upon a throne- a weirwood throne? The Iron Throne? "Is it madness to love a good woman, a woman brave and true?" 

"Is it madness to love a knight, strong and bold?" Brienne asked. Her eyes were very wide. 

"Is it madness to love anyone?" Ned Stark asked, kissing his wife's neck. 

"Is it more madness to love Brienne than it is to love me?" asked Cersei. 

Jaime shook his head. "No. No, Brienne, sweetling, please. I can't love you. I love Cersei." 

"Do you?" Peck seemed surprised. "You commanded me toss her plea into the flames." 

"I can't love you, I'm a knight of the kingsguard." 

"A kingsguard who outlives three kings before he reaches forty is not a kingsguard, he's a kingkiller." Joffrey, Robert, and Aerys were there and they watched with glowing eyes. 

"I can't love you. You are-" 

"What am I?" Brienne was close- so close, too close. Her eyes were sapphires, her smile was sad, her freckles were the stars in a clear midnight sky. She glowed blue blue blue in the light of Oathkeeper. 

"You are young." 

"Older than you were when you killed Aerys." 

"You are a lady." 

"Less so than you, I would argue." 

"You are a good woman." 

"You are a good man, Jaime." 

"No, I am not. But you are good. And beautiful, sweetling." He cupped her cheek with his left hand. His right hand had disappeared and her cheek was torn again. It did not matter. She was beautiful. "And I love you." 

And in his dream, he tilted his face up to hers and kissed her. She tasted like the ocean, like strawberries, like sunlight. 

When at last he pulled away from her, she smiled, and the noose went around her neck. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry not sorry.   
HAPPY HALLOWEEN.   
As an aside, I love how Jaime tends to be naked when he dreams. Catelyn and Arya also have no qualms about their bodies. But I think it's different for him than it is for them.   
Anyways, hit me up on tumblr. I'm @vi6sixofasoiaf. I publish character profiles weekly. I just did Renly and I'm doing Jaime next week.   
Toodles.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, don't have much time this evening. I may write a second chapter some time later tonight or tomorrow. Ta-ta.


End file.
